VIDEO: Troy man sentenced to 25 years for suffocating a child

Shannon Pozniakas, mother of 21-month-old Avery Cahn, left, and her sister, Kayla Stickelmyer, who is wearing a shirt with a photo of Avery on it, cry as Robert Hayden, 29, of Troy was sentenced to 25 years in prison for her son's death in Rensselaer County Court in Troy Thursday. (Mike McMahon / The Record)

TROY - A grief-stricken father condemned the man convicted of murdering his son, 21-month-old Avery James Cahn, shortly after that killer was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday.

"I don't want you to die in prison," said Matthew Cahn, speaking to his son's killer, Robert Hayden. "I want you to suffer every day of those 25 years so that, when you get out, I can look you in the eye and ask, 'Why?'"

In condemning Hayden to prison for a quarter of a century, to be followed by five years of parole, Judge Andrew Ceresia said, "The only thing more disturbing to me than suffocating that child is that, up until this moment, you've failed to show any remorse whatsoever."

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Hayden was convicted for smothering Avery Cahn, the son of his ex-girlfriend Shannon Pozniakas, whom he was babysitting at Pozniakas apartment in Griswold Heights on Jan. 7. When the child, in his playpen, would not stop crying, Hayden placed his hands over Cahn's mouth to stifle the crying.

"I did not cover his nose," Hayden claimed in a statement to police dated Feb. 6. "I was not trying to suffocate him. I held my hand over his mouth for a minute. He stopped breathing."

This morning, the child's father exclaimed, "You killed an innocent boy!"

"I keep thinking," Cahn continued, "What was going through his little mind during the last moments of his life while you had your hand over his mouth?" said Cahn. "As a Christian, I should forgive you, but I'll never forgive you."

In a tear-filled statement, Pozniakas said Avery's brother, 6-year-old Ethan, still tries to include Avery in daily activities.

"At dinner time, Ethan still tries to make a plate for Avery," said Pozniakas. She said she still has vivid memories of Avery running to her when she picked him up from the Unity Sunshine program, but that the family will never know who the child would have become.

"Who knows what positive actions he could have had in the world?" asked Pozniakas. "Because of you, Rob, we'll never know."

After the child stopped breathing, Hayden tried to give the child CPR, but after nearly two-hours realized the child was not responding. He then placed the child back in the playpen and left for Building 2 of Griswold Heights, where he traded his grandmother's rosary beads for a bag of marijuana.

After he got high with Pozniakas' next door neighbor, Hayden claimed he went back to the apartment to see Cahn.

"I stayed for 10 or 20 minutes," said Hayden. "I just sat in the room."

Hayden went to leave the apartment, but not before texting Pozniakas to tell her he put Cahn down for a nap.

Hayden left heading towards Wynantskill, and threw his keys and phone in the woods, but had started back towards Griswold Heights when he ran into a friend who informed him police were on the lookout. He then made his way along Campbell Avenue where he was found by security from Griswold Heights who held him until police arrived.

He was originally charged with second-degree murder, first and second degree manslaughter, and endangering the welfare of a child.

When Pozniakas returned to the apartment, she found her child dead in the playpen, and Hayden nowhere around.